Meet the Bloggers

Vivian Taylor

Writer & Advocate

Vivian Taylor is a writer & advocate who offers trainings on transgender issues to congregations, schools, and universities. She previously served the Executive Director of Integrity USA, the national LGBTQ organization of the Episcopal Church. She is also an avid Sung Compline promoter, and proud (if occasionally troubled) North Carolinian. She served in the War in Iraq from 2009-2010 and is currently running several statewide LGBTQ rights campaigns in places like Ohio, Oregon, and others. She writes about her experiences in war, being a peacenik veteran and being a transgender, bisexual Christian.

Yesterday was a strange day for North Carolina. In late February the city council of Charlotte, the largest city in our state and, including the greater metro area, the home of roughly a tenth of the state’s population, passed an ordinance containing a strong set of LGBT protections including public accommodations protections for transgender people.

Two weeks ago, I was invited to the White House. I received an email asking me to be present for President Obama signing his executive order banning LGBT employment discrimination by federal contractors. It was an incredible honor to be present for a historical event like that.

The whole event went by fast, but I got to meet people who I have only ever read about before.

One of the great joys in my life as executive director of Integrity USA, the national Episcopal LGBTQ organization, is being contacted by transgender and gay people looking for help in meeting their needs. I am always thrilled when I can connect people to new friends, educational materials, or welcoming faith communities. Unfortunately, there's one thing many people come to me for that I simply do not always have any way to help with.

I know that you are considering passing a resolution against transgender identity this week at your meeting in Baltimore. In anticipation of this vote, I write to you as a fellow believer in our Lord Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, the person to whom I have given my heart and soul and whom I spend my life serving.

I was raised Southern Baptist in Stanly County, North Carolina, in a devoted Christian family.

I have been horrified to see the new wave anti-LGBT laws across the country that have been put forward under the guise of "religious freedom," the idea that freedom of religion requires us to allow people to be mistreated. These laws give a wide range of businesses and services providers the right to deny service to LGBT people if they feel serving LGBT people would somehow come into conflict with their "deeply held beliefs."

When I was in high school in rural North Carolina, I wasn't very out. It was the early days of what you might call online social connection. I set up dummy email addresses to create secret identities on usenet forums where I tried to figure out what it meant to be transgender. I had friends I'd never met who I came out to over AOL Instant Messenger.

I was looking for people to know, to understand, but I was afraid to do it in my own hometown.